Ratification of International Labour Organization Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No 111)

Ms Raeesah Khan asked the Minister for Manpower (a) whether the Government has considered ratifying the International Labour Organization (ILO) Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No 111); (b) if so, what are the reasons why Singapore has not ratified the Convention; and (c) if not, whether the Government will consider ratifying the Convention.

Singapore takes its treaty obligations seriously. We have a longstanding policy to only consider ratifying an International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention if we can fully comply with it in law and in practice.

That said, non-ratification of a Convention does not mean that our policies and measures are not aligned with the spirit of the Convention.

We agree with the intent of the ILO Convention on Discrimination (Employment and Occupation), also known as C111, which requires ratifying member states to “pursue a national policy designed to promote, by methods appropriate to national conditions and practice, equality of opportunity and treatment in respect of employment and occupation, with a view to eliminating any discrimination in respect thereof”.

In line with this, we require employers to treat all jobseekers and employees fairly based on merit. Employers who do not adhere to the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices are investigated by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP). Where there is evidence of discrimination, the case is escalated to MOM, which takes strong enforcement action against errant employers. In this regard, MOM also stiffened penalties in 2020.

Besides enforcement, we believe that it is important to tackle discrimination through education. TAFEP has thus been underscoring the importance and benefits of fair hiring through mass media, collaboration with industry and community partners and workshops.

We continually review how to better tackle workplace discrimination in line with the intent of C111. MOM recently stated, via a Ministerial Statement on 6 July 2021, that we will do more to clamp down on egregious employers with discriminatory employment practices and alongside our tripartite partners, study various options to strengthen our efforts.